Placing the Stone to Move Forward
by Lisa Telramor
Summary: When Akari and her husband to be decide to have their wedding in Domino City, Hikaru comes along like a good friend/bridal party member. But for a city known for its gaming, there doesn't seem to be anyone interested in Go. Maybe the game shop everyone keeps mentioning will help him find somewhere to play Go...


_AN: Shocker of all shocks, have another fic! This is set after the ends of both Yu-Gi-Oh! and Hikaru no Go, so there are references to key events of both series. _

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The bell chimed at the Kame Game Shop front door and Yuugi looked up from where he was manning the counter. A young man with bleached blond bangs stomped into the shop looking like it was the last place he wanted to be at and frowned at Yuugi.

"Please, _please_ tell me you know where there is a Go salon around here because the last five people I've asked have looked blank, asked what Go is, and said to come here the second I mentioned the word game," the young man said. "This is the Kame Game Shop, right?" he added belatedly, wavering like he was tempted to duck out the door just to check.

Yuugi smiled. "Yes, this is Kame Game Shop. I'm afraid I'm not sure where the nearest Go salon is, but we do sell Go boards, if you're interested." He waved at the traditional board game section.

The young man groaned. "Does no one in this city play Go?"

He looked genuinely upset at the thought, so Yuugi cleared his throat and offered, "My grandfather might know of a Go salon, but he's out at the moment. I can ask him when he gets back if you'd like?" When the man looked like he was unsure whether to storm out or sit down where he was standing, Yuugi pulled one of the stools from behind the counter. "Here. Rest a bit." The young man slid onto the stool like he was made of tar, slow and not quite willing to move. Yuugi smiled again, this time sympathetically. "The people around here are more into card games and tabletop games than traditional board games."

"I know." The young man slumped against the counter. "My childhood friend's getting married in a week and her fiancé is obsessed with some Duel Monsters game and insisted on getting married at an amusement park of all places because it's _the_ spot for dueling—whatever that means—and I think Akari's humoring him, but then she humors me about Go, so who knows…" He sighed, waving a hand. "Anyway, here for a week, no Go salon in sight or listed in the phone book and Akari won't play me because she's getting ready for the wedding. I'm going through Go withdrawal."

"I see." Yuugi settled back on the other side of the counter. "You know, I think they have places where you can play online nowadays. Maybe you could play there?"

"Ugh." The young man buried his head in his folded arms. It wasn't the same kind of dramatic as Kaiba flaring his cape or Jonouchi posing, but it was equally expressive. Yuugi rested his head on his hand, noting with amusement that as soon as the young man started talking again, one had lifted from under his head to start emphasizing his words. "I can't do that. Besides, I'm crap at computers. Everyone thinks it's funny until I click on the wrong link and kill their computer with viruses. I can't even type." He looked up. "Hey. You wouldn't happen to know how to play Go, would you?"

"Um." Well, technically Yuugi supposed he knew. He knew the rules and the theory and had played the game at least once. "Does playing Grandpa a few times growing up count?"

"Honestly, that's good enough at the moment. Play a game with me? I'll give you a handicap and let you play black. Hell, I'll even play _shidou-go_ with you."

Yuugi had to laugh at the young man's hopeful expression. "Why are you so desperate to play Go anyway?"

"I'm a professional Go player. Go's my life." The young man propped himself on his shoulders. "Shindou Hikaru," he said. "3 _dan_."

"I'm Mutou Yuugi," Yuugi said.

"Huh, I've heard of you. You're the, what's-it. King of Games. Shiratori mentioned you in one of his Duel Monster rants." Shindou leaned over t he counter. "So you're the best player for your game, huh?"

Yuugi looked away. His hands went for the Puzzle, but the Puzzle wasn't there. Two years and he still reached for it… "I was." He wasn't. Not really. That title was Atem's. "I don't play Duel Monsters much anymore."

"Oh." Shindou sat back. He looked…embarrassed? Uneasy? Yuugi couldn't tell. "Sorry. I'll just put my foot in my mouth as usual."

"It's fine," Yuugi said. He touched the collar at his throat, a poor substitute for the Puzzle's weight but the most he could compromise without feeling like he was replacing it (_replacing Atem_). "I never planned on making it a career anyway. It was something I did with friends." The words felt like a lie. If they were a lie, it was because they weren't the whole truth, but Yuugi wasn't about to blurt that out to a stranger. He stood up. "I'll get the Go board."

Shindou's eyes followed him across the shop and back. Considering his enthusiasm with the game, Yuugi half expected Shindou's eyes to be locked on the board in anticipation of playing a game. Instead he watched Yuugi with a contemplative expression that read deeper than Yuugi was comfortable with. It reminded him that Go was a strategy game and that it required a level of reading situations and people not just the game board to succeed. As a professional player, Shindou likely had skill at all of that.

"You know," Shindou said slowly, as if testing the words even as he said them. "I quit playing Go once."

"Oh?" Yuugi set the board on the counter between them and the _goke_ next to it.

"It was years ago now but if it wasn't for a friend making me play again I probably wouldn't have touched it ever again." Shindou picked up a _goke_ and checked the color. He passed it to Yuugi and took the other one for himself. "It was after I became a professional player. I almost lost my professional status because I refused to go to games. At the time I thought it was penance."

"For what?" Yuugi asked though he felt like he didn't want to know. He ran his fingers through the smooth black stones. Shindou was looking at him like he was seeing too much. It was unsettling. Even Jonouchi didn't look through Yuugi's masks like that.

"I lost someone I cared about. The person that got me interested in Go to begin with. You could say Go was even more his life than it is mine." Shindou smiled at that like it was a joke and a truth all at once. Yuugi shifted uncomfortably as Shindou's stare went from retrospective to sharp. "I thought giving up Go would bring him back. But playing Go, the Go he taught me, keeps him alive in me."

Yuugi clutched the _goke_. "Why are you telling me this?"

Shindou laughed suddenly, diffusing some of the tension. "I don't know. You looked like you needed to hear about it." The smile dropped off his face. "You look like how I did trying to pretend nothing was wrong."

"I doubt the situations are at all similar," Yuugi said stiffly. Because how could they be when Atem had been the other half of his soul? There were a very limited number of people who knew what it was like to have a spirit share their soul room and spend every moment by their side, and all of them Yuugi knew had been Millennium Item users. Even then, Yuugi was sure he was the only one that missed his other half.

A strange smile was on Shindou's face, directed inward rather than at Yuugi. "No," he said. "They're probably not." He smiled wider and this one was directed at Yuugi. "But I felt I should say it anyway. It's not really something I talk about much but grief can do weird things to people and sometimes it helps to know that by remembering them or playing their moves you are like a legacy."

Yuugi gripped the _goke_ until his knuckles were white then relaxed, a little at a time. His fingers closed over a smooth stone and clacked it onto the Go board. "We were going to play a game, right?" For a moment his heart sped up like it did for Duels, a challenge given, and from the way Shindou met his glare, a challenge met. A little part of his heart ached at the voice of his memory whispering "_Let's play a game"_ but he pushed it away.

Shindou's smile slid into something sharper and more focused. "Let's see how well you play."

Yuugi was no Atem. He didn't perform miracles with any game dropped into his lap. But Yuugi had played games long before Atem entered his life and like hell was he going to play anything less than his best against this stranger.

Fifteen minutes later, Shindou leaned back from the board looking intrigued. "You know, you have an interesting technique. If you'd taken me up on that handicap, I'd probably have to play a serious game."

Yuugi frowned at the pattern of stones taking shape on the board. He could tell he was outclassed. Shindou was leading him to make the right moves, but Yuugi knew he was learning fast. "Go is more intense than I remember it being."

Shindou laughed. "Yeah, well, mindset has a lot to do with it. You should try sitting through a professional match. Or better yet, a title match. You could cut the tension with a knife."

"I bet." Yuugi placed another stone. He could tell he'd lose that bottom left corner. Ah well. He didn't have enough grasp on strategy to plan ahead enough to bring the bits and pieces together.

"Hey." Shindou placed a stone.

"Hmm?"

"A year from now if you're still unable to play Duel Monsters, maybe you should check into being a Go pro." Shindou grinned. "With how fast you're picking the game up you'd probably be good at it."

Yuugi ran Go stones through his fingers. "I already have a job at Grandpa's shop."

"Just a thought." Shindou held up his hands. "Either way, I want to play you again."

"We haven't even finished one game."

"Technically no, but we both know how it will end."

Yuugi sighed. He had a point. Although… "We knew how it would end after the first five stones."

"But you were learning, it's fun to keep it going." Shindou was still grinning. "Can I come play another game tomorrow?"

"Maybe," Yuugi said grudgingly. He placed another stone. They might as well see the game through to the end.

"Great. And maybe you could, I dunno, explain Duel Monsters to me." Shindou placed an answering stone with a soft click. "Maybe your explanation will actually stick. Are giant holograms actually involved? Because that sounds a little too weird to be true."

"Any weirder than a Duel Monster themed amusement park or getting paid to play a board game?" _Any weirder than a three thousand year old ghost?_

"Ouch," Shindou said laughing a little. "My job isn't just playing games for titles. I do a lot of teaching and conferences and stuff like that too. Playing the games are more like the reward for the rest of it."

"I'm sure it is a lot of work," Yuugi said with a bit of a smirk. Though if he had stayed playing Duel Monsters he probably would have been roped into doing similar things and being the face of the whole industry even more than he was. "The essentials of the game aren't that weird. It's more that Kaiba decided to enhance the experience with solid system projections so it looks like monsters are actually battling."

"Again, weird." They played a few more hands. "But then there are weirder things than technology out there."

"I suppose there are." Yuugi looked the board over and knew that all of his areas would be lost in a few turns. He sighed. "I think I'm going to have to resign."

"You sure?"

"You know the game better than I do and even I know there's no coming back from this mess."

Shindou's small introspective smile was back. "Not now I suppose but a few hands back it would have been fixable. Well, I know players that could have turned it around. Not you though."

"Thanks," Yuugi said drily. The bell rang at the door, and Yuugi remembered that he was in the game shop and he was supposed to be working. Well, that had been an interesting distraction at least. "Grandpa," Yuugi greeted.

"Yuugi! I see we have a customer?" Grandpa stopped at the edge of the counter, looking over the game on the board with interest.

"A guest, yes, a customer I'm not sure yet," Yuugi said and hid a smile as Shindou ducked his head guiltily.

"Uh. I could buy the board? I mean I have my own at home but you can never have too many Go boards."

Grandpa laughed. "It's been a while since anyone has shown an interest in Go around here. How about you play a game with me and if you win you don't have to worry about buying anything."

"He's a Go professional," Yuugi said even as Shindou's eyes lit up.

"Even better. That means it'll be a challenge." Grandpa had the grin on his face that said he saw an opportunity for a good game and wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Thankfully, Shindou looked more than eager to play another game. Yuugi wondered if he even remembered that he had entered the shop to find a Go salon. Probably not. It seemed that having a board and a potential opponent was enough to drive away any other emotional distractions. As Grandpa and Shindou cleared the board Yuugi found himself hoping Shindou would come back to the shop again tomorrow. Unwanted advice aside, it was the most interesting thing to happen in a while. Yuugi settled in to watch the game.


End file.
